Every Wednesday?

A union leader is addressing the crowd at a union meeting. From the podium he begins talking, “We have agreed on a new deal with management. We will no longer work five days a week.” The crowd roars it approval. “We will finish work at 3pm, not 4pm.” The crowd roars again. “We will start work at 9am, not 7am.” Once again the crowd roars. “We shall have a 150% pay raise”. The noise level was deafening. “We will work only on Wednesdays.” There was then a silence that immediately engulfed the room. You could hear a pin drop. Then from the back of the crowd a voice asks, “Every Wednesday?”

In spike of jokes like this that make the rounds, the evidence is overwhelmingly clear. The vast majority of workers want to do a good job at work. They want to work hard, they want to create products or services of which they can be proud, they want to work for a company that from their perspective has its act together and they want to be treated fairly and with respect, but then doesn’t everyone? This truism holds regardless of where in the world you happen to be, and whatever generation, gender or ethic group you are interacting with. Organizations tend to make rules to deal with the 5% of the population that do not fit this description not the 95% who do. As you think about your role think about what you can do to enable the 95% and not to control the 5%.

One Response

Imagine the day when the corporate world embraces it’s human resource pool as assets that have skills and knowledge that can propel the organization to new heights.

It is a basic human instinct to thurst to belong and to contribute to the social community, to make a difference.

The sad thing is that corporations being a lifeless entity, exists to support it’s own selfish objectives and thus does not understand the human element like we do, the carbon based lifeform that created the corporation*.